Abstract

We pool eight Spring QLFS quarters for 1992-1995 and 2000-2003 to examine female employment changes by ethnic group. We find that employment has significantly increased for all women except Black Caribbean/Other women. We show that qualifications have played an increasingly important role and there has been increased polarisation between the employment of women with a degree compared to those without. This is especially large for Pakistani/Bangladeshi women. Our decomposition analysis shows that employment changes between the early 1990s and the 2000s are mainly a consequence of changes in characteristics. However, decomposing white/non-white mean employment differences demonstrates a fall in the unexplained discriminatory component for most ethnic groups. Hence differences in white and non-white characteristics explain more of the 2000-3 employment differential than in 1993-5. Furthermore, significant unexplained ethnic penalties of up to 50 percent still exist for South Asian women.